The Lion King: Broken Life
by VergebungInAlle
Summary: After the successful dethroning of Scar, peace returned to the Pride Lands and new life begins to blossom all around. Starting with the birth of Simba And Nala's son, Kopa, the heir to the throne. Nothing could be better for the royal family and its followers. Kopa even becomes friends with a pair of cubs named Vitani and Kovu. However, their mother has a different idea for Kopa.
1. Prologue

The Lion King: Broken Life

Prologue

The fading sun's rays dimly lit up the magnificent rock formation, casting an orange tint over the entire congregation of animals that waited impatiently below the great structure. Every creature imaginable in the savannah was gathered underneath it, creatures from elephants to gazelles to cheetahs, all staring up at one point: the peak, the giant slab of stone that juts out of the base of the structure, being supported underneath by a long piece of rock that was rooted into the ground. The animals were all waiting for the same thing: the introduction of the new heir to the throne; the heir to the new king. The king that struck down the tyrant that was destroying their homes, and who killed the previous king, his brother, Mufasa, and then drove away the prince, his nephew, and claimed the throne as his own, completely justified by the fact that he was the only male member of the royal family left to rule. And it was under his rule that the grasslands became empty of any life that wasn't lion or hyena (The king's first decree being that hyenas and lions try to coexist together). It also wasn't helped by the fact that a drought hit as soon as his rule began, destroying the lands even further.

The lionesses starved; the hyenas starved; the cubs starved, the youngest even dying from the lack of nourishment when their mothers couldn't produce any milk. The only one who ever seemed to be fed was the king himself. Talk of rebellion was prevalent among the ranks of the lionesses, but there was only a few of them, and the king had plenty of support from the hyenas and even some of the lionesses. The few remaining lionesses who had young also didn't want to fight, because they still had little ones to worry about, leaving such talks of rebellion to never come to fruition.

Then he arrived.

The prince, whom the king thought was dead, came back under the assistance of his childhood friend, Nala, bringing with him his two other friends: a warthog and a meerkat. This, however, wasn't enough to incite a rebellion. Until the king revealed the secret that he had been keeping all along that he had, in fact, murdered the king, this was enough to start a full rebellion against him and dispose of him. With the prince now in command, the hyenas were exodus from the Pridelands and the rains came back, rejuvenating the grasslands once more. Soon the other creatures came back and everything was like it was when Mufasa ruled.

And now, only what appeared to be a short time into the rightful rule of King Simba, that Nala, his mate now, has given birth to his heir, a son. That was why all the creatures were waiting impatiently underneath the rock formation known as Pride Rock, the home to the lions. They were all waiting for his presentation to the creatures that, in due time, he could be ruling over.

All of the animals bowed their heads at the sight of the king and his queen appearing at the tip of the peak, looking down at the assembled crowd, a smile on both their faces. They moved on the opposite site of the peak, allowing an old mandrill, the royal advisor, to take the middle of it. He had the heir cradled in his arms, it resting peacefully, leading some of the assembled animals to think he was sleeping, but the slight jiggling of his legs proved that he was indeed quite awake. He suddenly quickly raised the cub, showing it to everyone in the clearing.

The animals all let out a great cry of long contained excitement: the elephants trumpeting with all their might, as well as raising up on their back legs and coming back down, the gazelles excitedly shaking their horned heads and bellowing, and the zebras rising on their back legs, as well.

The cub looked almost indifferently at the - to him - strange display that was being exhibited before him. However, his parents were both smiling, looking at each other first, then him with deep love in their eyes.

However, not everyone was happy about the presentation of the heir. Laying on the other side of Pride Rock in a curved out section of the rock where none of the sun's fainting rays could reach, laid a lioness with pale dark fur, blood red eyes and a dark stripe that ran along her back before being cut off between her eyes. She perked her eyes as she heard the cheering of the animals. She turned her head towards the sounds, letting out a menacing growl.

"They never did that for Scar!" She snarled, her blood red eyes painting out her anger. "All they ever did was jeer at him behind his back!" Flicking out one of her claws, "Of course, they never did again when I was through with them!" She laughed.

"Mom?" Came a tiny voice from the corner.

"What is it, Nuka?" She snapped, glaring at her eldest.

Obviously startled at his mother's reaction, Nuka flinched slightly, but kept his composure, "I was just wondering if I could go see the new cub?"

"The cub!" She snarled, sending Nuka jumping suddenly backwards in fright. "The good-for-nothing cub of a murderer?"

"It- It was just a-a suggestion, mom." Nuka quickly replied frighten, trying to stop his dark greyish furred frame from shaking. His red eyes, similar to his mother's, radiated fear strongly from them. "I-I could just always stay here?"

"No!" She growled, "Get out of my sight! I won't have no son of mine talking about the 'rightful king's' son in my presence." She continued.

"Bu-but, mom-"

"Now!" Nuka sprinted quickly out of sight, leaving a trail of tears behind, if his mother cared at all to notice. "Disgraceful!" She said disgustedly when he was gone. "No wonder Scar didn't pick him to be his heir. He's too stupid and soft to ever be a strong king." She muttered.

A sharp cry rang from between her paws, moving her attention to the two cubs that, up to this point, had remained quiet and unnoticeable. They had been sleeping peacefully, bundled up softly, lying next to their mother's gray cream chest, but her yelling at Nuka had obviously led to them waking up. They cried disapprovingly at the way they had been woken and shuffled almost angrily.

Their mother smiled down at them, "Ahhh, but you two are fighters, unlike your brother. And you," She said looking down at a cub that had reddish-brown fur, who was mewling disapprovingly. "You'll bring honor to the throne again one day; something this current imbecile of a king is destroying day by day, Kovu!" The other cub, a female with light tan-colored fur, meowed angrily, like she knew that her mother was forgetting about her. "And you'll be his prized hunter and fighter, Vitani, the one he can always rely on."

The cubs finally settled down and began to fall back into their slumber. Their calm slumber calmly lulling their mother into a need for sleep, and as she rested her head on her foreleg, just gently nestling them, she said, "And you'll never, ever, betray your mother. You'll always be there for, Zira!"


	2. Chapter 1

The sun rose and set on the Pride lands and its inhabitants a great number of times, leading to the young ones of the inhabitants to grow older and in turn take their place in the circle of life. And it was none more obvious than on the young prince, Kopa, who was no longer the small, indifferent to his surroundings, cub. Now he had grown into twice the size that he was when he was the cub that was presented all those days ago. His pelt remained the pale gold color that he had when he was a newborn, but, strangely, his head was topped off with a tuft of reddish-brown fur that hung down nearly to his red eyes. He was also surprisingly stocky for a cub his age, but this didn't bother anyone in particular, as this would mean that he would be a strong king. He also always had a kind smile on his face, leaving some to try and remember when he wasn't smiling in the moments that he was awake.

No lioness on Pride Rock could say one single, solitary negative thing about him, which was not to say he was never in trouble, but such transgressions on his part were extremely miniscule, and no lioness could ever stay mad at him for long. This fact led to him having a great many supporters in the pride, but, much to his displeasure, this didn't translate to him playing with any of the lionesses, as they all had their own duties to attend to in the pride. His parents also didn't have much time to spend with him, as they would put it as "royal business" that needed to be attended to right away. This led to Kopa being a rather lonely cub, who, in secret, would sulk quietly in the cave that they all slept in. This side no one knew about Kopa. No one ever figured that he was lonely, he was simply too good-natured and happy looking to appear to be lonely, but, nonetheless, he was.

There were three other cubs in the pride, but Kopa felt unsafe on going to talk to them, as their mother always seemed to be glaring at him whenever he saw them, or happened to pass by her. Her blood red eyes would follow him until he moved out sight, or, on the last time he noticed her staring, turned his head and glancing over at her, which made her switch her gaze quickly to her cubs that played in front of her. However, when he had removed his eyes from her, he could feel her gaze back on him.

He liked to think about this lioness and her cubs when he was sulking alone in the cave, trying to make sense of the mother's unrelenting glare and how much fun it would be to actually know the cubs, two of which were roughly his age. However, this seemed very impossible to him, as the mother's staring left him feeling strangely scared, though he couldn't understand why. It was like an ancient instinct in the back of his brain was telling him that she was danger, and should be avoided by all costs. And since he was too frightened to go and talk to the cubs, he couldn't get to know them and potentially become friends with them. The only potential way of knowing them was if they came up to him and talked to him, but they never noticed him no matter how many times he passed by them. They were always play-fighting when he walked by, something that looked very fun, but he couldn't ask to join for fear of their mother.

He had given up hope of ever getting to know the pair, but then one day while he was silently sulking in the cave: they came.

Kopa was lying with his forelimbs stretched out in front of him and his head lying on the ground, trying to stop any tears from coming out in his loneliness, when he heard a voice call out behind him: "What are you doing?" It said, a tint of confusion permeating from it.

Kopa didn't even have to get up and see who was talking, before the voice's owner came up into his full-view. It was the female of the pair that he saw every day; a female cub with light tan fur, blue eyes that seemed to command respect from others, and a large tuft of fur on her eyes that was slightly larger than the one that Kopa had on his head. She sat down in front of him, "It seemed rather boring to be cooped up in here all day, isn't it?" She said, tilting her head slightly to her right. "I mean, it would be better to be outside exploring than staying in here all day, right?"

Kopa rose quickly to his paws, astonished at the unexpected arrival of the cub. He had been hoping for such an occurrence for a long time, but now that it is happening he couldn't get any form of communication out of him; instead he continued to stare at her, his eyes widen to their brim, and his jaw was left a gap.

The other cub shuffled her paws nervously in front of her, "Is there something wrong with me or something?"

The spell broken, Kopa shook his head quickly from side-to-side, "No!" He said, almost shouting it out, "It's just I'm kind of surprised, is all."

"Why?"

"It's just that I see you every day, and this is the first time that you've ever came up to me." Kopa replied, settling down.

She smiled at him, "Yeah, exactly, you see us every day, but you never came up to me. My brother and I would let you join in whatever we were doing, but you always walk by and stare nervously at us for a moment, then walk off. Why is that?"

"Oh, ummm," He said unintelligently, now shuffling his paws nervously. He knew he couldn't tell her the truth: that her mother scares him for reason that would surely lead to her to take an instant disliking in him. He didn't want to waste this one opportunity to get to know her and possibly actually become friends with her. "It's because I…I." He fell silent.

She tilted her head quizzically, "'because I' what?"

"Because I… because I'm shy, I guess." He lied, darting his between her and the ceiling of the cave, trying to mask his deceit by averting his eyes as much as possible.

It was a rather bad lie, as the cub immediately laughed it off, "Shy! Sure," She said, rolling her eyes. "Next thing you'll tell me that antelopes actually have wings!" She laughed; "I've seen you talk to every lioness in this pride, even if you don't know them very well! You talk up a storm when talking to them, too! Tell me the real reason why you've never came up to us in the past?" She inquired, glaring intently at him.

Kopa grinded his teeth, "I'm serious, that's why I've never talked to you two! I'm shy." He replied as confidently as he could, "For adults it's different," He added. "They're easier to talk to, I guess."

"I don't believe it one bit!"

"It's the truth−honest!" He quickly replied, holding his paws in front of him. She still continue glaring, obviously not believing it not matter how many times he tried to defend himself. Feeling defeated, he added one last thing in a last-ditch attempt to convince her, "As prince, I couldn't possibly lie. I have to uphold some sort of good… umm, moral standard, don't I?"

To Kopa, it sounded weak and would almost certainly be shot down by her, but, much to his amazement, she agreed with him. "Yeah, that does make sense, doesn't it?" she said, nodding her head, making the tuft of fur on her head wave up and down.

"It does? Oh yeah, it does." He said, quickly recovering from his little mental mishap, "Kings and princes can never lie, it would reflect badly on us!"

She laughed, "It sure would, wouldn't it?"

Her laughing was infectious, as Kopa began to laugh along with her. Beginning to feel more confident, Kopa began to exchange several jokes with her that he had heard from his uncle Timon and uncle Pumbaa (Some of which his parents would greatly disapprove of!) However, these jokes made the cub laugh even more uproariously.

"You're actually pretty cool," She said, after she was able to stop laughing, "I don't know why Nuka always insults you."

"Nuka"? Kopa said, cocking his head to his right in confusion.

"Oh, sorry," the cub replied apologetically, "Nuka's my older brother, you know, the one with the unkempt grayish-black fur?"

Kopa nodded his head in reply, knowing clearly who she was talking about. He always saw him by himself near the back of Pride Rock. Kopa always thought of him as a little off, but entirely harmless, but his unheard of attacks on his character drove Kopa a little crazy. "What does he say about me?" He inquired his hurt pride palpable in his voice.

The cub seemed slight taken aback, but replied nonetheless, "He always saying that you're the weakest prince he's ever seen and that your father is the worst king that's ever ruled the Pride Lands, and…" She trailed off, not sure if she should complete the rest of what she was going to say.

"And what?" Kopa said angrily, not at just the insult Nuka said about him, but the one that states his own dad is a horrible king. He gritted his teeth at the thought of this mangy; no good lion was insulting both him and his father behind their backs. He unconsciously unsheathed his claws and began to drag them across the stone floor of the cave, sending up a sickening screeching sound that echoed in the cave.

The cub stared unflinchingly at Kopa, "You might want to put your claws away," She said, "I don't think that's good for them, and if you ask nicer this time, then maybe I might tell you the rest of what my brother said."

Kopa opened his mouth to retort, but quickly shut it without saying anything. Taking a deep breath, he slid his claws back into their slots, "Can you please tell me what your brother said about my father."

She nodded her head, "Thank you," She said happily, "now my brother told me and my other brother Kovu, the reddish-brown cub you always see me with," Kopa nodded his head to show he knew who she meant. "That your father is a murderer."

"That isn't true;" He growled angrily, "My father has never murdered anyone!"

The cub shrugged her shoulders indifferently, "I never really believe it either," She said, "He's always saying stupid things, so my brother and I really just ignore everything he says."

"At least, you and your brother are smart enough to realize that. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard!"

"I know that's why we never listen to him." She yawned, showing her small white teeth, "Anyway, this is getting boring, so you want to go play with my brother and me?" She asked eagerly.

"Rea-Really?" Kopa asked, instantly forgetting about the horrible things her other brother said about him and his father.

"Of course, why not? It might be fun."

Kopa was surprised at how fast strangers suddenly became what he could only describe as friends, or at least acquaintances. He could feel his loneliness instantly evaporated at her words, and giving a friendly smile, he accepted. However, one thing protruded his thoughts as they made their way towards the exit to the cave.

"Wait," He said, stopping just of the cave's exit which had strong sunlight coming from it.

The cub turned her head and looked at him confusingly, "What?"

"You never told me your name." He replied.

She smiled at him, "Silly me," She said, "My name's Vitani."

Kopa smiled right back at her, "Nice to meet you, Vitani. My name's Kopa."

"Nice to meet you as well, Kopa." She replied, her grin expanding wider across her face, "Now if there's no more problems, I would really like to go and play now. You coming?"

Nodding his head, Kopa quickly moved back up to his place besides her, and together made their way through the cave and out into the bright sunlight, now leaving only the cave to sulk it its own loneliness without anyone there to sulk with it.


	3. Chapter 2

King Simba and Queen Nala came back way into the sun setting, which now only remained as an orange speck in the horizon, the top edge of it now being only visible, taking what last of its light with it. The moon was now firmly taking its command of the sky, casting its miniscule light over the Pride Lands. And now with the moon in control, the inhabitants of the plentiful grasslands began to retire to their own dens or nests, leaving the moon to rule over the suddenly desolate grasslands.

The reason for the relative lateness of the royal king and queen of the Pride Lands was because of royal business that needed to be attended to at the waterhole, one of the easiest accessible sources of water in the Pride Lands. There had been complaints all day from all the creatures of the grasslands that involved a quarrel between a hippo and rhino at the waterhole. The argument seemed to stem from the fact that both thought they were the strongest, smartest and most important creature that had even roamed the world. Their quarrel wouldn't have been such a big problem if they wouldn't have blocked any other creature from accessing the waterhole until their little argument was resolved. One zebra had already been gored by the rhino before Simba stepped in to try and resolve the issue. But no matter how hard he tried to negotiate some sort of armistice, the two boneheaded creatures wouldn't budge from their positions.

Simba had begun to grow desperate at the sight of the two creature's continued quarrel, and it was only heighten by the sight of the sun going down. If he couldn't solve this problem before the sun went down, he feared that the other inhabitants of the lands would view him as an unsuitable ruler, because even if he had brought peace back to the Pride lands as a result of the death of the tyrant king, Scar, his true test was to maintain the peace, and if he couldn't keep a simple issue of fighting between two narcissistic, moronic animals: how could he possibly keep peace in a more important situation. Of course, this was just a fear of his; it could just all be mindless self-consciousness on his part heightening his fear of failure in the eyes of his subjects, though for all he knew they didn't care about it.

And in a way, all this self-conscious behavior of Simba's could all be happening because of his father. He remembered as a cub how his father, Mufasa, always, in his eyes, knew how to solve all the problems that had ever burdened themselves on the land. And Simba always wanted to follow directly in his father's paw-steps, and be able to solve everything that ever plagued the lands, but his lack of tutelage under his father for when he would claim the royal throne led to him being a smart and kind but a grossly underprepared ruler.

His only really helped was his majordomo, Zazu, but even he couldn't teach Simba everything about being a king, as he's never had to solve problems that was the king's job, not a majordomo. Even his royal advisor, the mandrill, Rafiki, wasn't around enough to help him, instead being off in his tree home and listening to the elements around him, waiting for some sort of sign or message from the previous kings that ruled, whom came to help in the Pride lands when times were at their worst. But this matter was obviously of very little importance to them, as no sign from them came down from the heavens to help Simba.

"What do I do, Nala," Simba had said to his mate, whom had remained oddly quiet the entire time he had tried to negotiate peace. "These two simply won't stop, and with the sun falling quickly we don't have much time left."

She turned her brilliant blue eyes on him and let a faint smile creep in on her features, "The great king Simba asking for help?" She said smugly, "I thought kings never needed any help to solve problems?"

"Come on Nala, this isn't time to joke around," Simba replied, switching his gaze slightly to the two warring creatures behind them to indicate them. "We have to get these two to stop fighting, so that the others can drink. I'm running out of options. They've denied everything that I've said to help create a peace; they even refused to take their quarrelling elsewhere."

"While to me it seems obviously clear to what course of action should be taken."

Simba snapped his head quickly to his queen, "Tell me than!" He said, barely able to keep his voice down to a normal pinch. Lowering his voice a little, "Tell me, so that we can go home already!"

Nala sighed, clearly exasperated at her mate's ignorance to what was extremely clear to her, "You obviously use their own pride against them!" She said. "Get them to do something that would make them want to prove their point to the other!" Narrowing her eyes, "Like say… a race!" She finished, a smile now clearly plastered on her face.

Simba looked at his mate, recognition at her plan painted clearly in his eyes as he raised them, "That's brilliant, Nala!" He said joyfully, "It could possibly work!"

"I know it will," She replied confidently, her grin only becoming bigger at her mate's praise.

Simba, now smiling as well, turned back to the two still arguing creatures, and quickly interjected into their delightful argument. Any other animal would've truly been scared stiff by the thought of sticking their nose into a hippo's and rhino's business, but Simba showed no fear as he moved his body in between the two creatures, "I have another proposition for you two," He declared, showing no emotion at his statement, instead keeping his features as stone-faced as possible.

"What is it?" The two shouted at him in unison, which was intended to frighten him off, so that they could continue their argument uninterrupted. However, Simba didn't flinch at their combined aggression towards him, instead simply staring forward as if nothing happened at all.

"My queen and I have heard how you," Indicating the rhino with his tail, "are the fastest creature to have ever had the pleasure of roaming the Pride Lands. Is it true?"

"Oh...ummm," The rhino said, clearly startled at the sudden flattery that was being shown to him, though he regained his bravado quickly, "Of course I'm the fastest! No one has ever beaten me in a race before!" He declared, proudly raising his horned head.

"What are you talking about?" The hippo quickly interjected in his boastful rejoicings. "You must be confusing yourself with me, because no one has ever beaten me!"

"Liar," The rhino rumbled loudly, "You must be confusing yourself with _me_!"

"Oh, you couldn't beat a blind warthog in a race!"

"Oh yeah," The rhino replied angrily, nearly foaming at the mouth at the insult pointed at him. "How about you prove it than! From here to the gorge, first one to reach it is the winner!"

"Of course the first reach it is the winner! It wouldn't make any sense if the one coming in last in the winner, you idiot." The hippo yelled, "However, you're on! Get out of my way, lion!" He nearly barged into Simba on his way to the starting line, which was the one solitary tree that was rooted next to the waterhole, but Simba was able to quickly sidestep oncoming body and watched as the two lined up.

"Lion," The rhino said, indicating Simba, "Tell us when to go so that I can beat this pile of waste."

Simba took the closest position on the left of the hippo and looked at both the creatures whose nostrils were flaring in anticipation of the race. The two creatures both massively outweighed and were much taller than Simba, and he surely wouldn't want to get in the way of the two determined creatures as they ran, so he moved further away until he stood directly under the tree.

"Ready, Set...Go!"

A massive cloud of dust was kicked up from the departure of the two massive animals, stinging both Simba's and Nala's eyes and making them tear up slightly, but the two rejoiced at the departure of the two idiotic animals. And now, with smiles on both their faces, they had finished up their final piece of business, which meant they could now head back to Pride Rock.

And what awaited them when they had arrived back home surprised them greatly, for when they finally arrived on the tiny stone clearing of Pride Rock which led to the the peak, they found their son playing with the two other cubs that lived too on the magnificent rock. This surprised them so greatly, because they had been so accustomed to finding him either sleeping in the royal den or, at least, laying there alone. They also never had seen him with these two other cubs before; to them he had always seemed to never be interested in them, but here he was having what looked like the time of his life with them: rolling, tumbling and pouncing happily with them, their gleeful laughing topping off the joyful occasion.

"You're it!" The reddish-brown cub called loudly, pushing himself off of the small light-tan furred lioness and sprinting quickly away from her with Kopa.

"Get back here!" She growled playfully, pushing herself quickly to her paws in pursuit.

The cubs remained blissfully unaware of their sudden new audience, instead continuing to chase each other around the peak being extremely careful of the edges. However, the game wasn't contained to the peak for long, as Kopa called loudly to the reddish-brown cub and motioned quickly for the den. They pushed their way quickly into the den with the female cub following closely behind, and though Simba and Nala remained outside the den, they could hear the indignant shouting of the lionesses inside the den; they were obviously not pleased to be bothered when they were trying to sleep inside.

"Get out!" Simba and Nala heard the lionesses inside shout in unison at the cubs, who heeded the orders instantly, as they sprinted quickly outside the den. Their game was seemingly forgotten as they all collapsed side-by-side together laughing.

"Did you see the look on that lionesses face when I fell on top of her?" The female cub was able to say before succumbing to laughter again.

The reddish-brown cub laughed along with her and tried to mimic the face that the lioness had pulled, which made him rear up his face and widen his eyes to the farthest limits that they could possibly be stretched, as well as opening his mouth in fake fright. The lioness cub laughed at his imitation of the lioness, but Kopa, however, stopped laughing.

"Kopa?" The lioness cub asked when she noticed him not joining in their merriment, "What's wrong?" She turned her head to where Kopa's eyes were gazing at with a mixture of fear and surprise, and what she saw only made her begin to laugh again. "Why do you look so scared, it's only your parents? It's not like they'll be mad at you for playing with us. Will they?"

And now with their presence finally being noticed by them, Simba and Nala ascended the final step to the small clearing of stone and stopped in front of the three cubs. However, this only made Kopa back up behind the small light-tan lioness, and even refused to look up into the eyes of his parents, who smile brightly down at them. The lioness flashed a big smile up at the king and queen, and bowed to them to show respect. The other also bowed to them.

"No need for that," Nala said, chuckling slightly, "it isn't necessary to bow in our presence."

"But you're the king and queen, shouldn't it be necessary to respect you by bowing?" The lioness said, staring up at them.

Simba answered, "No one should be forced to do anything in the presence of royalty, little one. That would be tyranny."

"But why should we obey you than if it would be tyranny, then?" The reddish-brown cub inquired curiosity ripe in his eyes.

"Well," Simba said, "There's a difference between obeying orders given and being forced to do something simply because of a royal's presence in front of them. For example, would you bow to Kopa simply because he is a royal?"

"No way!" The two cubs shouted in unison. "He's our friend."

"Exactly, however, if a king gives you an order for the betterment of the pride, would you follow it?"

"Yeah."

"There's your reason."

The two cubs exchanged looks of confusion between themselves, still slightly confused on the difference between obeying orders and being forced to do something, but weren't able to ponder long on the subject before their attention was drawn back to Kopa who had oddly remained quiet the entire time.

"What's wrong, Kopa," Nala asked, worried about her son's sudden mood swing.

"Yeah, you've been oddly quiet ever since your parents came back." The lioness said, turning about to face him.

Even at Nala's and the lioness's questioning, Kopa still remained quiet on the subject of his sudden lapse into a state of quietness. Seeing that this wasn't working, Simba instead tried a different tactic to try and make him talk.

"How about you tell us the names of your two new friends here, Kopa." Simba said, trying to make the topic appear as less intimating as possible.

This was enough to make Kopa raise his head and look at his parents, but wasn't enough to elicit any respond from him, and soon enough his head was again down staring at the stone floor. The lioness gave him a disapproving glare.

"What's wrong with you?" She said angrily, apparently his quietness finally getting on her last nerve. "Why is it all of a sudden you won't talk to anyone? Because your parents are here? Are you embarrassed to be seen with Kovu and me? Are we not special enough to be seen with, because you're a prince?"

Kopa raised his head quickly, "No! Not at all, Vitani."

"Then what?"

"Because…because I'm scared I'm in trouble now."

"Why would you think that?" Nala said surprised.

"Because of what we did to the lionesses," Kopa answered, lowering his head again in shame.

Simba and Nala both looked at each other before suddenly bursting out into laughter. The other two cubs looked at each other; a confused frown on both of their faces, and Kopa raised his head at the sudden laughter of his parents, confused by the humor they saw in a topic that was quite serious to him.

"What's so funny?" Kopa asked, summing up the three cubs sentiments at the bizarre display of laughter that had taken over the King and Queen.

"Ohhh, Kopa," Nala said, finally being able to make her laughter subside enough to speak, "Me and Simba have done way worse when we were cubs, than just messing around with the lionesses. Our parents sure had a pawful with me and your father, so much so that they could rarely let us out of their sight when we wanted to play out in the Pride Lands."

"Really?" Kopa replied, awestruck that his parents - the image of obedience – were, in a stark reality to his own imagination, wild and rumbustious as cubs. Vitani and Kovu both looked up at the King and Queen, as well, sharing the same reaction to the 'shocking' news.

"You better believe it!" Simba said, taking over for Nala, "We were horrible to our parents in a sense that they never knew what we were doing or where we were when we went off. I would tell you of some of the times when we were young, but I think it's too late to tell of such tales." He added, taking note of the moon high in the cloudless sky.

"Tell us! Tell us!" The three cubs shouted in unison, their sudden excitement at the prospect of a story.

"But it really is late, and you two should probably get back to your mo…" He stopped, noticing how all three looked at him wide-eyed and their lips pursed, silently begging him to tell them a tale. And as Simba looked down at the very picture of sympathy that the cubs were presenting before him, he could feel the rational choice slowly begin to disperse under their combined gaze. "Alright! Alright! You win, but I'm only telling one!" He said, caving into their silent pressure.

"Yay!" They said in unison, jumping up in their excitement at their victory over Simba, though the quickly discarded the jumping, and sat down and stared up at Simba, appearing to be mesmerized by the tale that hadn't even been told yet.

"Now when we were younger, probably no older than you three right now, I had heard of this amazing spot called the Elephant Graveyard, which sparked my interest instantly, as Nala and I had already explored every possible nook and cranny that was allowed for us to explore in the Pride Lands, and we were looking for a new spot to venture to," Simba said, laying down before the three cubs to get a more comfortable position to tell the story they coveted greatly, "so when I was able to tear Nala away from her mother, I thought we were free to explore without any trouble from our parents. Well at least that's what I thought until my mother burdened us with Zazu, my current majordomo. You know him right, Kopa?"

"Yeah," Kopa said, laughing gleefully, "Banana Beak!"

Simba joined in on his laugher, "Yeah, we called him that too when we were younger. But, anyway," He continued, quelling his laughter to get back onto the story, "my mother made him watch us which made it impossible to go to the graveyard, as he would surely prevent us from going under his supervision, so we had to lose him somehow…"

"How?" Vitani asked.

"We dropped a rhino on him," Nala answered, speaking up for the first time in the tale.

The cubs looked at each other, not entirely sure what to make of the blunt statement that Nala had put forward. They shifted their gazes from each other to Nala repeatedly trying to detect any sort of falsehood in her statement, but Nala exterior remained stone-faced and serious. They then looked to Simba, but he looked up to the sky trying to cover a smile from the nostalgic memories the story was bringing back. The cubs, finally reassured of the truth, were consumed by laughter, made possible because of the situation that they were imagining in their head, of tiny Zazu being crushed under a full-grown rhino. However, their laughing didn't last long, as the entire ensemble group suddenly heard an angry roar come from somewhere among the gullies that were curved into the rock which led around the whole rock, into tiny caves or slabs of rock that gave some shade when the weather was hot.

"Kovu! Vitani!" It snarled, "Where are you?"

"Over here, mother!" They both cried fearfully.

It wasn't long before their mother, guided by their words, appeared from one of the gullies, a look of extreme anger and frustration in her eyes. She made straight for them, ignoring everyone else around except for her kids. "Where have you been?" She growled, looking straight down at them. "I've been waiting all day for you both to return!"

Both Vitani and Kovu instantly fell to the ground and looked fearfully up at her, mouths a gaped at her ferocity and anger. However, they weren't the only ones to stare fearfully up at the dark tan lioness, as Kopa was also looking up at her with fright in his eyes. He remembered all the times he kept her trying to discreetly spy on him when he was walking around Pride Rock; it frighten him to be this up close to the figure that seemed to be secretly stalking him whenever he was near her.

"W-we're sorry, mother," Vitani said after mustering up enough courage to talk to her mother, "we were just about to leave."

"That's no excuse for me not knowing your whereabouts all day, Vitani!" She growled in responds, making her children flatten their bodies even closer to the stone surface of Pride Rock.

"Zira!" Simba intervened, "You're scaring them!"

Zira turned angrily towards the king, baring her teeth before she realized who she was facing. She immediately closed her month; however, she instead started to smile wickedly at the king. She turned away from her kids and marched up to the king, stopping just short of butting heads with him, but then she did something that surprised the ensemble group: she bowed to the king.

"How are you doing this fine day, Simba?" She asked, rising to her feet, a softer, but still evil looking smile on her features.

Simba taken aback slightly by the courteous nature that was being displayed so quickly after the apparent anger that was being displayed by her towards her cubs, quickly regained his wits and replied, "I'm fine today, Zira. How about you?"

"Couldn't be any better, now that I see our cubs have been acquainted with each other." She said, appearing to finally notice Kopa for the first time.

"You should've seen them earlier," Nala said, stepping forward, "they were having the time of their lives it seemed when we first arrived back."

"Hello, my dear queen." Zira said, bowing again.

"You don't have to do that," Nala said embarrassed.

"It is nothing but common courtesy to bow before the king and queen," Zira said, "I only do it out of respect, your highness."

"Please, you can call me Nala, Zira. Just because I'm queen doesn't mean you have to address me by anything of higher rank"

"If you wish, Nala," Zira replied, rising to her paws. "But I should surely take my leave, it is very late for my cubs, and they should really be off to bed."

"Good idea," Simba said, "I think its best we all go off to sleep."

"Good night, my king and queen."

"Wait!" Kopa suddenly yelled, surprising everyone ensemble. He quickly focused his attention on Kovu and Vitani, "Will we play tomorrow, too?"

"Of course, Kopa," Vitani said, apparently answering for both of them as Kovu nodded his head alongside her statement, "If our mom allows us."

"Why should I try to stop friendship from blooming?" Zira replied, shrugging her shoulders, "You can see him whenever you like."

Vitani looked at her in surprise; her mouth hung a gap and her head cocked slightly to the left. Kovu also held the same expression of confusion that his sister was displaying, but before Kopa could question their shocked expression, their mother turned around to exit into the gully. She called for them to follow her and they obeyed quickly, trailing slightly behind her, exchanging words between themselves.

Kopa couldn't watch his new friends for long as his parents quickly turned him and walked him to the royal den to sleep. He curled himself in-between his parents which provided himself with plenty of warmth, and closed his eyes fully satisfied with himself. It wasn't long before sleep came to him and his dreams were filled with him and his friends endlessly enjoying themselves in play.

* * *

"You're no mad with us, Mom?" Kovu said, mustering up the courage to ask his mother the question that his sister and him were carefully wondering the whole time they were walking to their own sleeping spots.

"Why should I be? You two were only having fun, it's not like that's a crime, is it?"

"Yeah, but you seemed pretty mad back there until you saw the reason we were gone for so long."

"Oh that was just because I was worried about you two. You were gone for a long time, and I was worried you two were hurt. I mean, I can't allow anything happen to my little darlings."

They pushed their way into tiny small stone clearing which was their oddly designated sleeping area, even though they were allowed to sleep with the others inside the royal den. The little cubs never question her on the topic though, instead they actually preferred the spot, because it wasn't tight and cramped like the royal den would likely be if they slept in there. Plus, it was also the same spot they were raised in and it did feel like a home to them. The only thing they hated about the curved in section of stone was that it was strangely cold; however, this was most likely because the sun never reached their tiny abode.

Nuka was already sleeping in his own corner of the cave when they had entered. Zira shook her head at him, but didn't say anything to disturbed him from his slumber, instead she curled in the center of their little stone home. Vitani and Kovu quickly followed her and laid down right beside her, taking advantage of the warmth she provided. It wasn't long before Vitani was sleeping, but Kovu, however, remained up, albeit groggy.

"Go to sleep my little prince," Zira cooed lightly.

"But I'm not tired,"Kovu replied, however, he was betrayed by a yawn that escaped from his mouth.

"You'll need it my little prince," She continued to cooed lightly, "you need it so one day you can grow big and strong, and then you can become a mighty king."

"But Kopa's supposed to be…" He trailed off again as another yawn interrupted him.

He closed his eyes as Zira smiled down at him, "We'll see, Kovu. We'll see."

**I know I haven't been updating a lot recently, but what can I say writer's block sucks. It also has to do a lot with just a lack of interest in writing, not that I won't continue with any of this, but I've just moved on to doing other things at the moment with my time. It might also have to do with summer too, because now I'm able to spend time with my friends outside and simply be outside more. However, this surely isn't the end of any of these stories, I'll try to update these eventually.**


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